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Favorite Five Fantasy Settings
Today I’m combining Friday Favorite Five with the Wyrd and Wonder Challenge for Wyrd and Wonder month, celebrating all things Fantasy. Today’s prompt is ‘unreal locations’! This is a great prompt to explore some of my favorite fantastical settings.
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The Bone Universe by Fran Wilde
I don’t think I’ll ever get over how cool the world building is in this series. A whole society of people who live in the sky within giant towers of living bone! A scarcity society, a world on the brink of revolution. A world above the clouds where you never see the ground. It’s just so fascinating.
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The Broken Earth by N.K. Jemisin
I love the world building in this series so much. It’s just my brand of weird. Plus, another scarcity society! I seem to have a thing for post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction. Anywho, stone eaters, obelisks, and earth related magic, sign me up!
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Ivory by Doris Egan
Ivory is one of three colonized planets waaaaaay in the future. But Ivory is different from them all because magic exists there too. This is a perfect Science Fantasy story and it’s quite fun! I love the culture of Ivory that we get to explore through the main character, an outsider from another planet who finds herself marooned after a trip there. I love all of the politics and the mix of magic and technology and it’s just great fun.
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The Chronicles of Elantra by Michelle Sagara
I’m a huge fan of Michelle Sagara’s Chronicles of Elantra and have followed the series for years now. The city of Elantra is so vibrant and full of life with different sectors and so many different kinds of people living there. I love how the city itself feels like a character in the books. There’s magic and mystery and a dark side full of crime and poverty too.
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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Now, I love a good portal story and Alice’s is one of the best. There are so many crazy things in Wonderland that I actually was a bit afraid of it when I was growing up. (Honestly, I still am!) It’s full of so many crazy and fun ideas and characters. Also, I think Alice is far braver than I’ll ever be.
Those are my favorite five this week, what do you think? What are some of your favorite fantasy settings and worlds? Leave me a note in the comments, I’d love to chat!
Way Too Fantasy 
The world of Updraft is so unique! Although putting on wings and flying from building to building felt a little unrealistic to me, for some reason. Plus scary, I don’t think I could live there.
I definitely wouldn’t want to live there but the world is super cool.
I’ve seen Updraft all over and I don’t know why I haven’t picked it up. Thanks for the reminder!
It’s a great book!
The Bone Universe sounds so cool! I definitely want to check that out now. Wonderland is easily one of (if not the) my favorite settings. It’s a bit terrifying, but so whismical and fun and enticing at the same time?? I’m just here for it, haha. Great list!
The Bone Universe is definitely unique! Hope you enjoy it if you get to it. 🙂
Thank ye kindly for the recommendation of the Doris Egan series. I have never heard of it. I haven’t read much Science Fantasy but the two that come to mind were interesting. I would like to read more of it. Arrrr!
x The Captain
I really loved those books, I hope you enjoy them if you get a chance to check them out.
So nice to see Alice on here and such a very bizarre world indeed.
Lynn 😀
Yes, I’ve always been a little bit scared of Wonderland lol.
Great list! I really like the sound of the fifth season and of course Wonderland is brilliant 😀
Yep, Wonderland’s a classic. 🙂